Prypiat (Припять). 3km from the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
The town of Chernobyl is 18km from the plant. Prypiat is 3km from the plant. It housed 50,00 people and was abandoned within hours (days?) of the explosion.
It is as was. There has been some looting and destruction, but it is simply a crumbling town that is slowly falling to pieces.
It is a Soviet town built around the main avenue, Lenin Avenue, that leads to the town square. It is lined with housing blocks. We weren't allowed into the housing blocks.
We had about 2 hours here and had free reign to go anywhere with our guide. There was no health and safety regulations. We went into the hotel, theatre, swimming pool, sports centre etc.
In the hotel, there were beds, slippers, drinking glasses... In the lobby there were documents and bills... In the theatre there were props and painted boards from performances... In the sports centre there were photographs on the walls, trainers, scoreboards...
I wasn't expecting to be able ot go into any of the buildings... ut we could go anywhere. First stop was the roof terrace of the hotel from which you could get a sense of the size of the town, and see in the distance, the nuclear plant.
People were not allowed to take anything in case it was radioactive.
As you will see from the first picture, the town was founded in 1970. It was abandoned in 1986.
We drove there from the nuclear plant and stopped at the town sign. The guide pointed out (in the distance) the "children's Summer camp" as it was called in Soviet times. He then went on to say that it was in fact an ICBM missile site.
He also pointed the piles of radioactive earth at the side of the road that were one of the first attempts to clean up the site (move radioactive earth and dump it a few miles away).
[This is an initial set of pictures... there are more to come]
It is as was. There has been some looting and destruction, but it is simply a crumbling town that is slowly falling to pieces.
It is a Soviet town built around the main avenue, Lenin Avenue, that leads to the town square. It is lined with housing blocks. We weren't allowed into the housing blocks.
We had about 2 hours here and had free reign to go anywhere with our guide. There was no health and safety regulations. We went into the hotel, theatre, swimming pool, sports centre etc.
In the hotel, there were beds, slippers, drinking glasses... In the lobby there were documents and bills... In the theatre there were props and painted boards from performances... In the sports centre there were photographs on the walls, trainers, scoreboards...
I wasn't expecting to be able ot go into any of the buildings... ut we could go anywhere. First stop was the roof terrace of the hotel from which you could get a sense of the size of the town, and see in the distance, the nuclear plant.
People were not allowed to take anything in case it was radioactive.
As you will see from the first picture, the town was founded in 1970. It was abandoned in 1986.
We drove there from the nuclear plant and stopped at the town sign. The guide pointed out (in the distance) the "children's Summer camp" as it was called in Soviet times. He then went on to say that it was in fact an ICBM missile site.
He also pointed the piles of radioactive earth at the side of the road that were one of the first attempts to clean up the site (move radioactive earth and dump it a few miles away).
[This is an initial set of pictures... there are more to come]
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